Use journalling to improve your public speaking

Recently, someone bought me Alex Ikonn’s The Five Minute Journal. I’ve always struggled with journaling but TFMJ has made it easy for me to write down my daily goals and my end-of-day reflections.

It struck me that a great place to record public speaking goals is in a daily journal. Public speaking is a journey. We get better with small tweaks and changes made on a regular basis. Just like we can’t go to the gym, do a few sit-ups and expect an immediate 6-pack, we can’t become great speakers after reading one book or taking a single course. Improvements are ongoing.

You may not have a formal speech planned, but you could set goals like, “Speak up in today’s work meeting” or “Volunteer to do a business pitch at today’s networking event”. It’s amazing how many opportunities pop up to get our voices heard.

You could even set a goal like “Today I will speak louder/slower/more authoritatively in my work-related conversations”.